“It does (change my opinion). Tim Sylvia was a real opponent. [But my opinion that Anderson Silva is still the world’s best fighter has not changed] Not at all. Do you even need to ask me after that?”

UFC President Dana White — who has in the past dubbed Fedor Emelianenko a “farce” — tells Yahoo!Sports.com that he has renewed respect for the Russian after his performance last night at Affliction: “Banned.” Emelianenko stormed Sylvia at the opening bell, dropped him and took his back for a fight-ending choke. It took just 36-seconds for the former UFC champion to tap.

fedor fought twice the man james irvin is, and beat him in half the time.

Umm... The Pitbull did basically the same thing Fedor did (knocked tim down and subded him) in 47sec

and Randy almost did it in the first round too....

Frank Mir Subbed him in 50sec (broke his for arm)

So I don't think Fedor doing the same as others makes him unique

Your argument is weak IMO

You should have stayed in the Fedor is god and basically undefeated rant because that one no one can really argue about....

Anderson Silva's last 5 wins before Irvin were finishes against top ten ranked fighters... Then he moved up weight and finished a great powerful striker with only really being touched 3 or so times

loller90278

7/20/08 9:46:39PM

anderson silvas opposition through out his career has not been on the same level as fedors. the middleweight division is the weakest division not only in the UFC, but all of MMA. only a handful (misaki, akiyama, lindland, silva, filho, etc etc) are top level competition.

as for your other thought, when arlovski submitted tim, he was high up there on the p4p rankings, and when couture beat tim he skyrocketed through the rankings.

i dont think beating james irvin solidifies anderson to be #1 p4p fighter. sure, he cleaned up the MW division, but theres not much there (sans henderson, and maybe franklin). on the other hand, if he beat a top 5 LHW instead of irvin last night, that would have sent him straight to #1. he's a huge MW and walks around 220 so fighting at 205 isn't a drastic difference.

RNC

7/21/08 12:11:16AM

Silva as Fedor to settle it all.

hodge

7/21/08 1:18:17PM

ahh dude i would seriously love to see that fight

Fedor by 1st round total destruction

BlueSkiesBurn

7/30/08 10:25:03PM

Where's the debate on this pound for pound best in the world between Anderson Silva and Fedor? Anderson Silva is 22-4. Fedor is 28-1*. Fedor has 6 more wins and 3 less losses. This is a crap argument. Fedor's competition has been much better than Silva's. I'm confused. I like Silva but where's the argument?

The-Don

12/16/08 1:52:51PM

Posted by BlueSkiesBurn

Where's the debate on this pound for pound best in the world between Anderson Silva and Fedor? Anderson Silva is 22-4. Fedor is 28-1*. Fedor has 6 more wins and 3 less losses. This is a crap argument. Fedor's competition has been much better than Silva's. I'm confused. I like Silva but where's the argument?

That was a simple way to state it. though the Silva nuthuggers could state Fedor has more fights.. so of course he has more wins.. on the flip side.. Fedor has more fights.. and already less losses.. Personally I think over all they are close enough in weight.. someone above said Anderson walks around at 220.. so he already can reach HW status.. give him tme to train.. he wants to fight only the Best.. I say Dana and Silva should put up or shut up and get Silva a fight with Fedor.. Settle it once and for all.

AchillesHeel

12/16/08 2:28:17PM

Posted by The-Don

Posted by BlueSkiesBurn

Where's the debate on this pound for pound best in the world between Anderson Silva and Fedor? Anderson Silva is 22-4. Fedor is 28-1*. Fedor has 6 more wins and 3 less losses. This is a crap argument. Fedor's competition has been much better than Silva's. I'm confused. I like Silva but where's the argument?

That was a simple way to state it. though the Silva nuthuggers could state Fedor has more fights.. so of course he has more wins.. on the flip side.. Fedor has more fights.. and already less losses.. Personally I think over all they are close enough in weight.. someone above said Anderson walks around at 220.. so he already can reach HW status.. give him tme to train.. he wants to fight only the Best.. I say Dana and Silva should put up or shut up and get Silva a fight with Fedor.. Settle it once and for all.

That was a simple way to state it, yes. It was also wrong.

Fedor's competition has not been "much better" than Silva's. If anything, the reverse might be true, especially if you look at the last three years, maybe even the last four. Over that time, Silva's record is much better than Fedor's, and his competition has been much stiffer. Since April of '05, Silva is 11-1*, and Emelianenko is 8-0 (if you're going to put an asterisk on Fedor's loss to Kohsaka - and I agree that you should - you should also put an asterisk on Silva's loss to Okami).

In that time, Emelianenko's only win worth bragging about was his Final Conflict 2005 victory over Cro Cop Filipovic. His wins over Mark Hunt and Matt Lindland were either harder than they should have been or impressive turnarounds, depending on your point of view. His win over Sylvia was impressive as heck, but the fact that he won wasn't. His wins over Choi and Zuluzinho were almost embarrassing (rumor was that Fedor apologized to Zuluzinho, in fact) and might deserve asterisks as much as his loss to Kohsaka does.

Anderson Silva's win over Chris Leben was basically the same as Fedor's win over Sylvia - he was the favorite to win, but it was an unexpectedly dominant performance. Silva's win over James Irvin was arguably more impressive than any of Fedor's wins in the last three years, with the exception of the Cro Cop fight, and it was arguably an exhibition fight for Silva. Don't forget that before Silva came along, Rich Franklin had little-to-no competition at Middleweight and was in the Top-10, Pound-for-Pound (I actually still think Franklin is Top-10 P4P). Silva completely out-classed Franklin, although if you want to be charitable, you could call it a bad style matchup for Franklin. And, finally, if you don't appreciate the significance of Silva's submission of Dan Henderson, you don't know MMA very well. Let's put it this way: Even after Silva's destruction of Hendo, people still say Henderson may have the best chance of defeating Silva at 185.

ncordless

12/16/08 2:53:06PM

Posted by AchillesHeel

Posted by The-Don

Posted by BlueSkiesBurn

Where's the debate on this pound for pound best in the world between Anderson Silva and Fedor? Anderson Silva is 22-4. Fedor is 28-1*. Fedor has 6 more wins and 3 less losses. This is a crap argument. Fedor's competition has been much better than Silva's. I'm confused. I like Silva but where's the argument?

That was a simple way to state it. though the Silva nuthuggers could state Fedor has more fights.. so of course he has more wins.. on the flip side.. Fedor has more fights.. and already less losses.. Personally I think over all they are close enough in weight.. someone above said Anderson walks around at 220.. so he already can reach HW status.. give him tme to train.. he wants to fight only the Best.. I say Dana and Silva should put up or shut up and get Silva a fight with Fedor.. Settle it once and for all.

That was a simple way to state it, yes. It was also wrong.

Fedor's competition has not been "much better" than Silva's. If anything, the reverse might be true, especially if you look at the last three years, maybe even the last four. Over that time, Silva's record is much better than Fedor's, and his competition has been much stiffer. Since April of '05, Silva is 11-1*, and Emelianenko is 8-0 (if you're going to put an asterisk on Fedor's loss to Kohsaka - and I agree that you should - you should also put an asterisk on Silva's loss to Okami).

In that time, Emelianenko's only win worth bragging about was his Final Conflict 2005 victory over Cro Cop Filipovic. His wins over Mark Hunt and Matt Lindland were either harder than they should have been or impressive turnarounds, depending on your point of view. His win over Sylvia was impressive as heck, but the fact that he won wasn't. His wins over Choi and Zuluzinho were almost embarrassing (rumor was that Fedor apologized to Zuluzinho, in fact) and might deserve asterisks as much as his loss to Kohsaka does.

Anderson Silva's win over Chris Leben was basically the same as Fedor's win over Sylvia - he was the favorite to win, but it was an unexpectedly dominant performance. Silva's win over James Irvin was arguably more impressive than any of Fedor's wins in the last three years, with the exception of the Cro Cop fight, and it was arguably an exhibition fight for Silva. Don't forget that before Silva came along, Rich Franklin had little-to-no competition at Middleweight and was in the Top-10, Pound-for-Pound (I actually still think Franklin is Top-10 P4P). Silva completely out-classed Franklin, although if you want to be charitable, you could call it a bad style matchup for Franklin. And, finally, if you don't appreciate the significance of Silva's submission of Dan Henderson, you don't know MMA very well. Let's put it this way: Even after Silva's destruction of Hendo, people still say Henderson may have the best chance of defeating Silva at 185.

You think that a win over Chris Leben is the same as a win over Tim Sylvia? Tim Sylvia is unquestionably a top ten HW who has held the belt twice and has two wins against Arlovski. Chris Leben is not a top twenty MW who's claim to fame is being a jerk on a reality show.

You qualify Fedor's wins over Hunt and Lindland as harder than they should have been, but do not mention the same thing about Lutter or Cote.

You belittle Fedor's win over Choi, but I wonder how Anderson would do against someone that size.

Silva's wins over Franklin, Marquardt and Hendo are very impressive, and that is where the argument is made. Is it more impressive than wins over Cro Cop, Sylvia, and Nog? I go back and forth on it myself.

AchillesHeel

12/16/08 5:14:32PM

Posted by ncordless

You think that a win over Chris Leben is the same as a win over Tim Sylvia?

In the sense that they were both expected to win, yet did so in unexpectedly dominating fashion? Yes.

Posted by ncordless

You qualify Fedor's wins over Hunt and Lindland as harder than they should have been[...]

I said that you could see them that way, or you that you could see them as Fedor overcoming adversity. I never said which was my own opinion.

Posted by ncordless

[...]but do not mention the same thing about Lutter or Cote.

Yes, that was an oversight. I was trying to be brief.

Posted by ncordless

You belittle Fedor's win over Choi, but I wonder how Anderson would do against someone that size.

Um... I guess I don't see your point.

Posted by ncordless

Silva's wins over Franklin, Marquardt and Hendo are very impressive, and that is where the argument is made. Is it more impressive than wins over Cro Cop, Sylvia, and Nog? I go back and forth on it myself.

As do I. However, the tipping point for me is that Silva's conquests are recent. We're coming up on the 4th anniversary of Fedor's win over Nogueira, and it's been almost 3½ years since his win over Cro Cop. On the other hand, Silva doesn't really have many people to fight at 185 at the moment. To really put some daylight between himself and Emelianenko, I think Silva would have to move up to 205 and defeat a big name. So Fedor might have a greater opportunity to stake a claim to the top spot in the near term, and if he defeats Arlovski, I might have to return him to #1 on my P4P list. (Although, with the St. Pierre-Penn match coming up, it's going to get crowded at the top... But isn't that why we watch? )